Everything I've written here is hereby placed in the public domain. The quotes from other people's writings, and the
pictures used might or might not be copyrighted, but are considered fair use. Thus the license here would best be
described as:Primarily Public Domain.

An unprecedented array of US intelligence professionals, diplomats and former Pentagon officials have gone on record to lambast the Bush administration for its distortion of the case for war against Iraq. In their view, the very foundations of intelligence-gathering have been damaged in ways that could take years, even decades, to repair.

A new documentary film beginning to circulate in the United States features one powerful condemnation after another, from the sort of people who usually stay discreetly in the shadows -- a former director of the CIA, two former assistant secretaries of defence, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and even the man who served as President Bush's Secretary of the Army until just a few months ago.

Between them, the two dozen interviewees reveal how the pre-war intelligence record on Iraq showed virtually the opposite of the picture the administration painted to Congress, to US voters and to the world. They also reconstruct the way senior White House officials -- notably Vice-President Dick Cheney -- leaned on the CIA to find evidence that would fit a preordained set of conclusions.

Early female-dominated societies lost their power to men as they acquired cattle, a new study demonstrates.

The idea that early communities became "patrilineal", with male status and inheritance being most important, when they gained cattle has been debated since the beginning of modern anthropological studies in the nineteenth century. However, no one had been able to convincingly demonstrate a causal link.

Now Clare Janaki Holden and Ruth Mace at University College London, UK, believe they have produced some of the firmest evidence yet to back the theory.

They made a linguistic tree of the evolution of 68 African Bantu languages, which include modern day Swahili and Zulu, and correlated this with the acquisition of cattle herds by those language speakers and the type of society they lived in.

The researchers then used a clever mathematical model to infer what had happened in the past to produce the pattern of languages seen today. "At an early stage these populations were more matrilineal than today," Holden told New Scientist. "They then adopted cattle and became patrilineal."

"I think this study is very important," says Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading, UK. "What they are trying to show is that human mating patterns, wealth inheritance and dominance systems respond to ecological variation in the same way that we would expect animal populations to behave."

Bride wealth

Holden believes reason the acquisition of cattle led to a switch to male-dominated societies is most probably linked to the system of "bridewealth". This tradition, in which a bridegroom gives cattle to a bride's family, is particular to the Bantu speaking regions of sub-equatorial Africa.

"If a man's got lots of cattle he can have lots of wives. So if you have cattle it makes sense to give it to sons rather than the daughters," she says. The fundamental reason for this is that wealthy, and therefore attractive, sons are likely to have more children than daughters, because while women must bear each child a man need only impregnate a woman.

Holden believes that the acquisition of wealth may generally causing a shift in power to men: "If you have valuable resources they are probably going to become monopolised by men because men can use them to acquire more wives or women."

Another factor that could be important, Holden says, is cattle raiding, with men better able to defend against marauders.

Maximum likelihood

The Bantu linguistic tree created by Holden and Mace charts the divergence of the languages from a common starting point about 3000 years ago. They then added data about each population's ownership of cattle and their type of society, matrilineal or patrilineal.

The pair then applied the mathematical model, developed by Pagel, to find the "maximum likelihood" historical scenario that would have produced the modern day situation. They found that acquiring cattle did indeed cause a shift to a man's world, or one of "mixed descent" where both sexes are important for inheritance.

Crucially, they were able to account for the fact that the cultures were related. Cultural traits tend to be passed down generations in the same way as genetic ones.

Pagel, who is also Mace's husband, says the study shows the cultural phenomenon arose independently a number of times and "greatly strengthens" the belief that the cattle ownership and patrilineal societies have a causal connection and are not observed together for some other reason.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B (DOI 10.1098/rspb.2003.2535)

12 Nov 2003 @ 23:59
My father was born on 5/5 and died on 11/11. It has been 14 years since he died. Every year my mother and family attend the Veteran's Day Memorial Cervice at the cemeter where he is buried. We were given a flag which was drapped over his cofin when he was buried. It flys once a year in this ceremony honoring him and his commitment to his adopted home.

My two sisters and one heart sister toasted him at dinner. He is not forgotten.

COURAGEOUS
· How brave of Owa to leave the comfort of his mother, father, nine brothers and sisters, cozy nipa hut, and beautiful rice fields on the island of Panay as a teenager to seek his fortune half-way around the world. (ca. 1918)
· Duty drew John to join the army in WWII to defend his homeland. (1943)
· With confidence in himself, John followed a dream and moved his family to Palm Springs. (1953)

SHY
· A man of few words, Dad always seemed ready with a smile or a joke.
· Either working (16 hours/day) or sleeping (6 hours/day), Dad had little time to chum with buddies.

INDUSTRIOUS
· Who was the lucky Stockton family who benefited from a devoted houseboy named Juan?
· Juan must have impressed the Manongs with his hard-working attitude as he learned to cleave meat in their butcher shop.
· By cooking meals for troops in WWII, John gained a skill that would serve him for the rest of his life.
· Opening a restaurant in Stockton was a tremendous undertaking for John. Giving free meals to friends and family was his downfall.
· Working in two different restaurants during the desert’s tourist season and also in Lone Pine or Lake Arrowhead from June to October made it possible for John to support his wife and five children.
· The fruit and vegetables that came from Dad’s garden impressed and delighted the whole filipino community.

GENEROUS
· John never failed to send money to family back in the Philippines.
· Dad would give everything he could to everyone else, wearing second-hand clothing and eating leftovers whenever possible.

LOVING
· Like a mother hen, late each night upon returning home from work, Dad would make the rounds, checking to see that each of his children was safe and well.
· Until he was wheelchair bound, John devoted himself to doing whatever he could to making his wife happy.

AN elderly couple in the central Philippines were beheaded by neighbours who accused them of being witches, police said today.

Police in the remote town of Cauayan on Negros island detained three men including the victims' son-in-law, who was implicated by the two other suspects in the grisly July 4 killings. Generoso Casupong, 65, and his 64 year-old wife Isabelita were both decapitated inside their home by two men armed with a large curved knife used to harvest coconut fruit, said Cauayan police investigator Alvin Cuenca. Detained suspect Eugenio Tanguar blames the couple for the death of his daughter from unspecified illness last year. Speaking to reporters behind his jail cell, Tanguar said he threw the woman's severed head in the hearth in the belief that the ashes would prevent the alleged witch from reattaching her body and coming back to life. Another suspect, Carlito Hibolan, said he used the same knife to kill the husband. "He was shouting for help and I was in a hurry to kill him because I know aswang (witches) are strong and was afraid he might overpower me," Hibolan said.

The two claimed the third suspect, Rosendo Cabug-os, had encouraged them to kill his in-laws, also believing them to be witches. Cabug-os denies any role in the attacks. All three were arrested yesterday.

In local folklore, aswang or witches are believed to feast on human flesh and can transform themselves into animals.

More than 800 people have been killed in northeastern Congo on suspicion of taking part in witchcraft.

Ugandan army commander Major General Odongo Jeje confirmed lynchings had taken place. But he refused to be specific about the number of deaths in Congo's Ituri province.

The New Vision newspaper has quoted the Ugandan military command in Aru, Lieutenant Colonel Fenekasi Mugenyi, as saying 800 people had been killed by July 8.

Residents of Aru began killing people suspected of witchcraft in June, but the killings have been stopped by Ugandan forces, Maj Gen Jeje said.

"I have just contacted the officers there and the situation is calm. Nobody will give you the exact figure because nobody has gone to the villages to count the bodies, there are just estimates," he added.

A senior military officer said last week that Ugandan forces were being withdrawn from Ituri in keeping with the Congolese peace process, which requires all foreign forces to withdraw from Congo. The area is administered by the rebel Congolese Liberation Front.

Uganda and Rwanda entered Congo in August 1998 to back rebels opposed to then Congolese President Laurent Kabila.

The rebels accused him of ethnic warmongering and Ugandan and Rwanda accused him of backing rebels using Congo to launch attacks on those countries.

Reports from the densely forested area, where there are few roads, no regular telephones or electricity, are difficult to confirm.

The area, which borders northwestern Uganda and southern Sudan, is also home to 74,000 Sudanese refugees, according to the UN refugee agency.

For two decades, self-help books have hammered home a consistent theme for successful romantic relationships: first, you must love yourself. A new study, headed by a psychologist at the University of Georgia, may turn that wisdom on its head, though.

It turns out that those with positive self-views bordering on narcissism are usually miserable mates--selfish, manipulative, unfaithful, and power hungry. The study, co-authored by Keith Campbell, assistant professor of psychology at UGA, Craig Foster of the U.S. Air Force Academy, and Eli Finkel of Carnegie-Mellon University, was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Clinical narcissism itself is a personality disorder affecting only about one percent of the population, but there are millions who share characteristics of narcissists to a greater or lesser degree. In general, true narcissists think very highly of themselves, are not very concerned with intimacy, and believe they are unique and smarter and more attractive than others. They often maintain these feelings by seeking and expressing superiority to or dominance over others.

Despite anecdotal evidence to the contrary, men are only slightly more likely than women to fall into this category. Narcissists often find it easy to get dating partners but rarely have long-term relationships. People with low opinions of themselves may be especially easy prey for narcissists.

Viewing excessive narcissism as a problem is nothing new, of course. In Greek myth, Narcissus saw himself as beautiful and better than those around him, but his love of himself kept him from falling in love with anyone else. In the end, he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water and died.

If you want to read more on narcissism check out Sam Vaknin, Ph.D's website. It has lots of information and links...good reading.

25 Aug 2003 @ 14:12
I woke up this morning before dawn feeling small in my bed. I stepped out on the deck to see Mars in the sky. (Mars is closer to the Sun and Earth than in 60, 000 years. Mars is officially at perigee, its closest approach to Earth, on August 27, the day of the New Moon.) I sense the canyon speaking to me about changes that are taking place as the wheel of the year turns.

I take inspiration from the words of Joanna Macy from her writings about the Great Turning. As above, so As below:

Come from Gratitude To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe--to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it--is a wonder beyond words. Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Furthermore, it is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don't be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, for these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings. To suffer with is the literal meaning of compassion.

Dare to Vision Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination. We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts..

Roll up your Sleeves Many people don't get involved in the Great Turning because there are so many different issues, which seem to compete with each other. Shall I save the whales or help battered children? The truth is that all aspects of the current crisis reflect the same mistake, setting ourselves apart and using others for our gain. So to heal one aspect helps the others to heal as well. Just find what you love to work on and take joy in that. Never try to do it alone. Link up with others; you'll spark each others' ideas and sustain each others' energy..

Act your Age Since every particle in your body goes back to the first flaring forth of space and time, you're really as old as the universe. So when you are lobbying at your congressperson's office, or visiting your local utility, or testifying at a hearing on nuclear waste, or standing up to protect an old grove of redwoods, you are doing that not out of some personal whim, but in the full authority of your 15 billions years.

24 Aug 2003 @ 20:57
Wow! Where does all the time go? I had hoped to post to my blog while in Glastonbury, England, but I found that I am not that 'techie' when it comes right down to it.

This morning I woke up to Dina Bachlor's weekly message:

Dearest all,
T.S. Elliott reminds us that only those who will risk going too far can possible find out how far one can go. Therefore we must each be willing to step away from our "you go first" attitude and become the pioneers we came here to be. Are you willing to find out what the response to standing in your integrity might really be? Are you willing to love without a single expectation so that you can stretch your own heart and find out what it feels like to become the love itself? Are you willing to stop trying to change those people in your life who do not recognize and support your spirit and find the ones who will? Are you willing to be the spirit you are at work, at play and in precious connection between you and your beloved? Are you willing to stop expecting unconscious people to act in conscious ways? Are you willing to give up smallness in order to get to your own greatness? How far are you willing to go? Step off the edge. But, be careful, you may find there is greater safety and aliveness in the unknown where every probability and possibility exists … than in the known where the choices have all been made.
Love
Dina

29 Jul 2003 @ 19:45Jewels and I went to the Glastonbury Symposium to hear what [http://www.cropcircleradius.com/AboutUs.html|Michael Glickman} had to say about Squares, String and Ribbons. You can read about his research and work here He gave a great presentation, full of humor and wonder.

Not sure if we will make it to any of the crop circles this year, though we did make a date to visit Michael next week. We shall see where my adventures in Avalon take me.

28 Jul 2003 @ 18:59
Hard to believe this is the first time on a computer in 5 days. I must say I hardly missed it, though I am glad that I got on to clear emails.

Travels across the pond were uneventful, by the Grace of Goddess. With the rain coming and going.

Someone asked me today if I had jet lag. I laughed, how can anyone tell in Glastonbury? I seem to slip between the edges of time. I guess my first clue was the white rabbit I saw on the road, dashing off with a brown wild rabbit on my way out of the canyon.

19 Jul 2003 @ 17:27
Life is surreal at times. The phone rang last week just as I was getting out of my car to go food shopping. It was Julie calling from Glastonbury. So there I was in the healthfood store walking through the produce asile connected in to Avalon. Seems there is a group of people who wan to take a trip to a faerie forest just after I arrive. According to Jewels, "It is known as the "Morgana" line there."